The setting up of the free-trade zone is widely seen as one of the key reforms to be introduced under Xi Jinping’s leadership. But it remains uncertain how far the government is ready to go. Some of the boldest ideas – such as breaking the state monopoly over internet, data transmission and storage business - are still under discussion and may require special permission.

Premier Li Keqiang, the driving force behind the free-trade zone idea, is eager to see it as a testing ground for wider and deeper financial reforms. He earlier said the central government would copy the Shanghai model to the rest of the country if it proved to be successful. State media compared it to Deng Xiaoping’s creation of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zones some three decades ago.

Just like Deng, Li faced serious, at times open, resistance from entrenched interest groups.

The idea seems to have run into resistance from the conservatives. The People’s Daily on Friday ran a commentary by a government researcher warning of the potential political risks such a move would entail. The article compared lifting the internet ban to the creation of “foreign settlements” in Shanghai under unequal treaties forced on China by imperial powers a century ago.

The article defended the need for internet controls and said “even if one day the free-trade zone does get rid of the [internet] firewall, it would be part of a synchronised effort by the country as a whole.”

“Undeniably, the importance of the firewall will gradually weaken until one day when it will be phrased out. But that will be the result of China’s growing overall strength and confidence, and ... the balance of power between China and the US hegemony. It can not be forced.”

Among the key industries facing reduced restrictions is that of banking and financial services.

Beijing will allow foreign banks to skip long and often bureaucratic approving processes when setting up their wholly owned units in the free-trade zone.

It often took a few years for a foreign bank to first set up a symbolic representative office in China and then upgrade it to a full-service branch.

Peter Wong, chief executive of HSBC Asia Pacific said in a statement that the free-trade zone in Shanghai “will open a new phase in China’s financial reform process, bringing greater flexibility and fresh options to the heart of the world’s most dynamic economy.”